On Tuesday, in one of my guided reading groups, my students and I were working our way through an “apple” reader. In the book, it listed different ways to enjoy an apple. One of the items on the list was apple juice. My first grader looked at me and his eyes got real wide and asked, “Miss Smith, can we make apple juice in class?”

I told him I would think about it but I LOVED the idea. I have a juicer at home {that sadly does not get much use} and it makes some delicious apple juice and I thought what a fun lesson that would be to work on adjectives with apple juice!

I went to the store and bought way more apples than anyone should ever buy in one trip (40!) and started making some anchor charts. I wanted to tie in as many concepts into the lesson as I could. We have been working really hard with sequence of events, nouns and adjectives, and have also been focusing on graphic features and graphs. (PERFECT!)

I made these anchor charts and had them up and ready to go when my students walked in.

The student who asked about apple juice LIT UP when he walked in and read the charts. I love the excitement and JOY first graders have over the little things!

To start the lesson we went over a sequence of events and then broke up into small groups to discuss how they thought apple juice was made.

Afterwards, they shared their groups’ ideas and we made predictions as to how many apples they thought it would take to make enough apple juice for us all to enjoy some. (The guesses ranged from 1-10,000!)

Next we explored the juicer and were relieved that we would not have to SQUEEZE the juice out of the apples!

Then we got to work juicing the apples! I had one student press down on the “press” and another student hold the cup (to prevent any spillage!) and another friend got to watch the pulp get spit out. {a favorite job!}

Even watching the process was fun!

After 22 apples, we filled the container and were ready to enjoy the juice!

First a child prayed (I teach at a Christian school!) for us and thanked God for the apples and the juice.

(how cute is this picture?!)

And then we all “cheers-ed.” {totally student led!}

WE LOVED IT! One student said, “THIS IS BETTER THAN THE STORE!!!!”

So, so good!

Here are some of the adjectives my students came up with to describe the juice!

If you have a juicer, I HIGHLY recommend making apple juice in your classroom!

{Pre cut your apples to make the process go faster!}

In the end it took about 22 good sized apples to pour 13 cups of juice. I mixed pink lady, red delicious and fuji apples for our juice and it was delicious!!! My students really enjoyed seeing how much juice each apple let out!

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Hi! I'm Kristen and I have been an early childhood teacher for 13 years. I currently teach kindergarten at a private Christian school in Austin, Texas. My passion is creating fun, engaging and inspiring lessons for my students and then sharing them with you! I strive to integrate science and social studies into all aspects of my classroom. I hope you enjoy my blog. Please let me know if you have questions or comments.